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The Bochum Experience

About Adrian Posoiu

I've started playing Magic when I was 18 years old, around the time when Mirrodin reared its head in Standard. The jump to semi-competitive play came shortly thereafter, as I started grinding local events on a regular basis. I attended my first Grand Prix in Athens 2006 and made my Pro Tour debut in Nagoya 2011. Recently, I won the Romanian Nationals and am currently set on participating at the World Championship. For those interested in what goes on outside my realm of Magic influence: I'm currently studying for a Master’s degree in Astrophysics, as I find it one of the most interesting and rewarding branches of science at the moment.

The Bochum Experience

Last time I traveled to Bochum for a Grand Prix, I salvaged
my early exit from the tournament by making the finals of the PTQ held on
Sunday. As such, I was eyeing this year’s event ever since it was first
announced on the competitive schedule. Fortune smiled on me and my schedule
opened up, giving me the possibility to attend, as well as enough spare time
to get some proper testing done.

Two years ago, the format was one I did not care as much
about since both Sealed and Scars of Mirrodin were not high on my list of
preferences. I am the first one to admit that my selling point as a Magic
player is Constructed. I have an affinity for 60-card decks and the results to
back up this statement. I enjoy proper deckbuilding, tweaking and playing with
my creations more than the novelty aspect of always playing with a previously
unknown set of cards. Since this year’s GP Bochum was going to be Standard, I
was confident that I could improve on my performance and chain together three
consecutive day two appearances in Constructed GPs.

At a glance, the format seemed healthy, with a variety of
decks contributing to a broad metagame. There were no dominant strategies,
although each week a new archetype attempted to seize power from the masses,
only to be promptly overthrown in the coming tournaments. Multiple SCG Opens
had either Bant Control, Reanimator and Jund take the title, with respectable
appearances from Green/White Aggro, Junk and Humans in the mix. Zombies appeared to have disappeared from the
map completely. Regardless, it was hard to tell if the deck was clearly not
viable, or just flying under the radar and waiting for its chance to strike.

It quickly became apparent that I had to be prepared for
cards, rather than decks. In a relatively fresh format such as this, where there
is no set mix of 75 that defines an entire strategy, it may seem daunting to
test against all the possible variations. It’s even harder still to put that
effort to good use and come up with something that is strong against the entire
field. Instead, the deck I would eventually choose to run had to have solutions
to the pillars of the format, as exhibited by recent results.

The main offender, as you can imagine, was Thragtusk.
The beast pulled its weight across a great number of matchups, either by
undoing the efforts of aggro players, or by forcing your midrange/control
opponent to grind through a threat that was very hard to deal with. Most of the
popular decks ran full playsets and some copied found their way even into some
BG Zombies lists that sideboarded them in as a trump in beatdown mirrors. The
best answer to it, one that could nullify its entire potential, was the one
that did not allow the creature to enter play at all. Any vestige of prominent
counterspell presence in Standard was extinguished when Mana Leak
rotated out. Although a large permission suite was still available to players,
most of these were either overpriced or quite situational. Aside from
counterspells, the next best thing were pacifism effects. If I would play a
deck that largely did not care about the opponent’s life total, I could bypass
the more annoying abilities by locking the creature down with
Arrest. Unfortunately, Restoration Angel, as well as
sideboard cards such as Ray of Revelation, made this a risky
proposition, one that did not provide the reliability I was looking for over
the course of a 9-16 round tournament. Lastly, if all else failed, I could
simply run my own Thragtusks and try to keep parity by joining the
dark side.

Entreat the Angels was a card I had high up on
my list of threats at the time. I gave
some thought to how I could beat this effect, especially given the already
proven viability of a ramp-control shell in previous events, but regardless of
what deck I ran or which solution I found, there were many game situations
where I was dead to a topdeck that spawned upwards of six angels of the board.
We know now that Entreat has all but vanished from the format, but the card
concerned me for quite some time in testing.

Going back to the world of five drops with game-ending
potential, Thundermaw Hellkite was a creature that had been
gaining a lot of steam and was quickly becoming the go-to finisher in multiple
strategies. It had surpassed Geist of Saint Traft in the UWR
Midrange decks and had become a mainstay in Jund as a universal finisher and an
efficient way to clear multiple Lingering Souls tokens from the
battlefield. There weren’t many instant speed removal spells that could deal
with the dragon’s 5 toughness. It basically came down to either having access
to Ultimate Price or simply taking damage for one turn and dealing
with the threat on my upcoming turn. Multiple Hellkite draws were something I
feared from my opponent.

The last card on this shortlist was the definite trump for
all the midrange archetypes that were populating Standard. Unburial
Rites made it possible to go over the top of Thragtusk and
looping multiple copies of Angel of Serenity enabled Reanimator
decks to out-grind even the most hardened board control builds. While it was
possible to bring in considerable quantities of graveyard hate, thus forcing
the deck to play out its cards in a fair manner, it did not seem possible to
tip the win percentage in my favor for game one. In typical Dredge fashion, those
decks relied on taking the pre-board game and hoped to eke out a victory in one
of the uphill sideboarded confrontations.

To sum up, it seemed that midrange strategies were the kings
of the format, with contenders either trying to go bigger than anything the
former could muster, or going for the quick kill via an efficient beatdown
curve. With this in mind, I settled on Jund as my frontrunner. It ran two of
the four cards on my shortlist and had a solid gameplan against the others. In
addition, the limited amount of testing I had done until that point was at the
helm of the Jund deck, so I felt it was a natural choice going forward. This
was the list I had worked on, as it presented itself one week prior to the
Grand Prix.

The extended removal suite was excellent at keeping
aggressive decks at bay. Its wide selection could keep up with the variety of
threats presented by Green/White or by black-based beatdown. In my initial
analysis of the format, several weeks ago, I mentioned that control decks would
be hard pressed to adapt to both very aggressive early drops such as
Strangleroot Geist, as well as expensive heavy hitters like
Wolfir Silverheart, especially when those were coming from the
same deck. Fortunately, between Pillar of Flame,
Dreadbore and Sever the Bloodline, very little could
slip through the cracks. Falkenrath Aristocrat was a known issue
and I had seen builds that were maindecking several copies of Tragic Slip
in order to deal with the menace (with the added bonus of killing Thalia quite
efficiently), but I was not sold on it since the card seemed to have narrowed
uses than any of the other removal spells I was already playing.

It was quite a few days before reaching this list that the
UW Flash deck piloted by Adam Prosak had taken the format by storm. The list
managed to showcase several counterspells, cantrips, conditional removal and
efficient threats, all bunched up in a neat little package. When the deck took
home the SCG title the next weekend, everyone was convinced it was the real
deal. I took it to a 4-round FNM and was impressed with how smoothly it
operated and how well it could position itself in comparison to the cumbersome
midranges I had grown accustomed to. The fact that almost all of the maindeck
spells could be played at instant speed provided great mobility and gave out a
Faeries-vibe more than anything else. I could compare playing it to how a
lightweight boxer might dance around a bulky sumo warrior, evading blows and
tiring out the opponent before making the final move. The counterspells were so
good in the format that UW actually managed to gain a favorable game one
percentage against Reanimator. What was even more concerning though, was that
Jund had a very tough time beating it. Indeed, dropping Olivia
Voldaren and any other such haymakers could end the game on the spot,
but oftentimes it was impossible to manage your spells well enough in order to
break through the counterspell wall. One Dissipate could be bought
back with Snapcaster, which in turn could be reused with the help of
Restoration Angel. Even with Jund’s high density of ‘I win’ cards,
I found it hard to position myself well on the board when squaring off against
UW Flash.

It was with deep regret that I abandoned my midrange
princess, but I was looking forward to piloting the crafty blue-based control
that had stolen my heart. With the Grand Prix looming on the horizon, I had
very few days to optimize the list, especially given how much the metagame was
expected to change for the coming weekend. By then, everyone will have taken
notice of the deck, with Magic Online heralding a new age for free-rolling
counterspells across the field.

Everyone, myself included, felt that Sphinx’s
Revelation was a great card for the deck, since it was often the
gamebreaker against all of the slow, grindy matchups. The instant allowed you
to refuel after expending most of your answers and helped you pull ahead
without fear of dying to combat damage in the next turn. It could be argued
that UW only needed to cast one Revelation to perform well. However, any
additional copies made it easier to actually have a Revelation in hand at the
opportune time and could also fight against random discard or occasionally
miling yourself with Thought Scour. Being forced to Snapcaster one
back would net a loss of two cards and two life, both of which could be crucial
in some situations. The card I chose to cut in order to make room for another x
spell was the third Think Twice. Although, most players removed
one of the Unsummons, under the reasoning that the deck was not as
tempo-oriented and would be hampered by the added card disadvantage, I think
that cheap bounce effects are vital for the deck’s survival in game one, when
facing hyper-aggressive strategies. Lacking access to the sideboarded removal
spells, simply buying time by chaining Unsummon into Azorius
Charm can make the difference between stealing the win with
Runechanter’s Pike or being raced by Loxodon Smiter.

My gut instinct told me to add a 24th land. The
deck played out as a draw-go in the early and mid game and all I wanted during
that time was to make my land drops. Nonetheless, when actually playing the
deck I noticed that the large amount of cantrips and draw effects would allow
me to dig for lands quite efficiently and I would even flood out in rare occasions
when my Thought Scours binned two spells and drew me a mana
source. As a compromise, I opted to leave the maindeck land count at 23, but
add additional Cavern of Souls to the sideboard. The mirror was
all about gaining a mana advantage, and stumbling on lands was a sure way to
fall behind. In addition to blanking opposing counterspells, the Caverns
ensured that this would not happen.

The last change I made, literally on the night before the
event, was to swap out the Geist of Saint Traft and
Detention Spheres for an extension of the mass removal package.
After I heard Green/White Aggro was a popular choice among the players at the
event, I knew I needed a way to shore up the matchup, especially given how
tough it was to come out victorious out of game one. In the end, this is the
list I registered for the Grand Prix:

After I had enjoyed the single bye I had earned in the
previous season (I was lazy, I know), I had to fight through two exhausting rounds
against white-based aggro. Both matches played out in similar fashion and I was
close to coming out unscathed from the entire thing.

To begin with, I ran into GW Aggro, thus confirming my
speculations from the night before. Most of the problems arose even before we
were done shuffling, since I lost the die roll and was relegated to playing
last. This issue was further augmented by the turn two Thalia, Guardian
of Thraben that I was forced to stare down, with two useless
Essence Scatters stranded in my grip. Although I did my best to
hold off the onslaught, a curve of turn three Loxodon Smiter into
turn four Cavern of Souls + Supreme Archangel was too
much to handle. I boarded in my five sweepers and took out the two copies
Think Twice, as well as some of the conditional counterspells. The
second game started out quite poorly, with me muliganing to six and whiffing on
a turn two Augur of Bolas. To note, throughout this match I played
a total of four Augurs, three of which had failed to deliver a single spell to
my hand. Nonetheless, the 1/3 body was enough to hold off some threats at bay
and, virtue of a pair of Unsummons that broke vital soulbonds, could
block 2/2 Silverblade Paladins. The crucial moment saw me dig for
the second Unsummon by casting a Sphinx's Revelation
for five, leaving up a single blue mana in the event I drew it. This would
become a recurring theme for the day.

A quick aside on the Sphinx's Revelation
‘desperation play’: I had practiced casting the x-spell as a last ditch resort
quite thoroughly before the Grand Prix. Oftentimes in these cases, you want to
find either Unsummon or Azorius Charm, in order to
get rid of an essential attacker, order blocks in your favor and hopefully turn
the game around. There are, however, some computations to be made with regard
to how much mana you need to leave untapped in order to maximize your chances.
By holding up two lands to cast Azorius Charm you are taking away
one extra card that could be used to find Unsummon, while the
opposite might leave you stranded with an otherwise life-saving 2CMC instant in
your hand. Depending on how much you can afford to pay for x and on how many
copies of both Charm and Unsummon are still in your deck, the
decision can always be different. I advise anyone wishing to take up the deck
to practice this aspect for a while, especially given the popularity of aggro
nowadays.

Coming back to the game situation, I knew that my best odds
were to cast the Revelation holding up for Unsummon. Surely
enough, I peeled the instant as my last card and was allowed to untap into a
new turn. Among the cards I drew, I also found a Supreme Verdict.
The sweeper reset the board and allowed me to carry on chaining spells until I
got a Runechanter's Pike online. Nonetheless, I was unable to
attack until I drew my second equipment, since my opponent was also threatening
lethal if I could not provide a blocker for his Loxodon Smiter. In
the end, I salvaged a win out of a tough game.

Although I was on the draw for game three, I used three
copies of Supreme Verdict to the fullest. The first cleared out
several accelerators and a Silverblade Paladin, whereas the others
dealt with individually large threats like Wolfir Silverheart.
After the game, my opponent showed me the one Sigarda, Host of
Herons that he was running, which made me wary of how I spent my last
Verdict. Fortunately for me, she never made an appearance and I seized the game
with a pair of Restoration Angels that outmatched his late game
flood.

Unfortunately, my second round did not go as planned,
although the events closely mimicked those in the previous game. I lost the
opening game against UW Humans to a turn two Thalia, but managed to turn around
a mulligan and tie the game at one apiece post sideboard. At a key moment in
the decider, the board state was as follows: I had several untapped lands in
play, with a Snapcaster Mage and a Sphinx’s
Revelation in hand. My opponent fielded a Thalia, a Champion of
the Parish, as well as another random creature that I cannot recall. The
plan was to flash in the mage, use a flashbacked Azorius Charm to
put the legend on top and block the 2/2 Champion. Then, on my opponent’s next
turn I could cast the Revelation for full value, in response to his Thalia. He
only had two cards in hand that he hadn’t played for some time, and I thought
those might be some copies of Sundering Growth or other
conditional removal. True enough, the Snapcaster went in the way of the
attacker, but my opponent tapped three mana and cast Rootborn
Defenses. Wow, I almost got blown our by that card. In the event of
casting a Supreme Verdict, this would have completely left me
powerless. As things stood right now, I was glad that the Defenses were out of
the way and I could dig for a sweeper with my Revelation. On his next turn, my
opponent drew Thalia and proceeded to cast her. I stopped him and tapped all of
my mana, almost certain that I had the match locked up. Unfortunately, the five
cards I drew included four lands and a Runechanter’s Pike. My
subsequent draw step brought about another land. I sunk in my chair, knowing
that lethal damage was on the way next turn and all I could do was bluff my six
card hand and hope he made some sort of mistake. He didn’t and I took my first
loss of the tournament. Congratulations to Jonas Wienand for his top 16 finish
and a big thanks for being such a nice opponent.

I bounced back in the thick of things by scoring two clean sheet victories against UWR Midrange. Testing showed that this archetype was one of the best matchups I could hope for, alongside Jund. They relied on a few imposing threats that they had to sneak through my counterspell wall, a game that I knew how to play very well. Even though Geist of Saint Traft is cheap enough to come into play before I can represent Dissipate, the combination of Snapcaster Mage and Restoration Angel make it possible for me to ambush the legend once I establish a foothold on the board. Naysayers will point toward the newest addition of Cavern of Souls in the UWR arsenal. I can assure you that Cavern is much more threatening when it can ensure that a Thragtusk hits play, rather than any other threat that can be disposed of with less effort. In both of my matches, my opponents had a Cavern naming 'dragon', with one of them actually casting three separate copies of Thundermaw Hellkite in one game. Although it was not easy to claim victory there (I needed to hit Unsummon or Charm with a Revelation for four cards), I still pulled through and came out ahead. Post-board, Supreme Verdict can handle any of the large threats that get through the counter wall, further easing the potential pressure of Geist of Saint Traft.

What came next was a difficult matchup against a hardcore UW Control deck piloted by Olivier Ruel. I was unfamiliar with the exact contents of the list and chose to play cautiously throughout the entire first game. I held on to a Dissipate for far too long, fearing a random Entreat the Angels topdeck from my opponent. My only other counterspells at the time were two copies of Essence Scatter, both of which sat idly until I got to shuffle them back for game two. I quickly realized that Olivier was not running any creature spells, not even Snapcaster Mage and his win condition was none other than Jace, Memory Adept. Backed up my his younger 4-mana brother, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and Elixir of Immortality, the planeswalker ensured that I could never escape being decked out. The Blue/White deck showcased its true late game strength when, after activating the Tamiyo ultimate, big Jace could mill back ten cards directly to my opponent's hand. With the help of Elixir, Olivier could never deck out and could take all the time in the world to craft the perfect 20-card hand.

I scrounged together a win in the second game with a topdecked Moorland Haunt that activated the derelict Runechanter's Pike I had on the board. After having my initial onslaught dampened, I knew I didn't have much time before my opponent's deck started firing on all cylinders. Luckily, his hand contained sweepers and counterspells and the land came down before he could find an instant speed answer to creatures.

My good fortune hastily turned around in the decider. Only a few turns into the game, I knew I would have a very difficult time winning. The cards responsible? Two Pithing Needles that disables both Runechanter's Pike and Moorland Haunt. One of the reasons Pike was such a dominant force in the UW Flash mirror match was the lack of a reasonable Disenchant effect - Divine Offering and Revoke Existence have rotated out and Sundering Growth requires two white mana to be cast. Unfortunately, this gap also meant that the deck was vulnerable to other artifacts, such as the Needle. With no way to remove those nuisances from the board, I had to rely on my army of 1/3s and 2/1s to deal the full 20. Given that I was facing a deck full of sweepers, spot removal and counterspells, it was not long before I was overwhelmed. Although Olivier had full control of the match, with Jace, Memory Adept thinning my library more and more, time was called before I reached the critical draw phase. I left out a sigh of relief and, after a brief contemplation, took my draw headed for the next round.

A quick aside on this match. I have mixed feelings regarding my decision not to concede the match to my opponent. At that time, I still felt that I had a good shot of reaching day two and any additional point would help greatly in my quest for top 64. Regardless, Olivier had game three locked up and would have definitely finished me if he had gotten another turn. This sentiment is further enhanced by the fact that my opponent displayed copious amounts of fair play, proving that he is a symbol worthy of the hall of fame. Apart from keeping spirits high throughout the match, Olivier ensured to quicken his pace of play after claiming the first game, thus giving me a shot to turn the match around. He could have rightfully chosen to take his time both during shuffling and in the decision making process, but he played in a rhythm that I myself found hard to match even when my best interest was on the line. Kudos to you sir !

While shuffling up for round seven, I couldn't help but look to my left and right. Across all of the nearby tables, players were fielding several copies of Cavern of Souls, ready to make life uncomfortable for anyone running Essence Scatter & co. After I played a first turn Island, my opponent looked relieved and admitted that he had kept a hand that was only good against control. Sure enough, he dropped a turn two Cavern of Souls and surprisingly elected 'vampire' as the relevant subtype. A few land drops later, my curiosity was sated. Bloodline Keeper entered the battlefield unhindered and all I could do was bounce it several times with Unsummon before finally allowing it to become active. With Azorius Charm acting more like a Think Twice, all I could do was watch it create an army of vampires and eventually flip into a game-ending threat. After sideboarding, I was able to sweep the Keeper off the battlefield with Supreme Verdict, but found my life total dwindling at the hands of two Rakdos Keyrunes. My last draw step yielded an Azorius Charm, which would have kept me alive for one more turn. These calculations were quickly nullified by a hasty Falkenrath Aristocrat, which forced me to bet all my money on topdecking my one Terminus. I paid two mana, dropped the Charm from my hand and drew... Pithing Needle. I had completely discounted this card from the list of possible solutions. Cycling the charm on my turn would have allowed me to lock down both Keyrunes, although I am unsure if that would have been the correct decision. Without knowing about the Aristocrat, holding up the instant as a removal spell would have ensured another draw step and it would have been foolish of me to give up this apparent certainty in hopes of drawing a singleton answer. In addition, Terminus was also a singleton in my deck and it is arguable that drawing into it would have yielded better results overall. As things stood though, I was facing down lethal damage and had no option but to accept defeat.

With this, my adventure in the world of Standard GPs was over, at least for the foreseeable future. In terms of deck choice, UW Flash definitely exhibited significant power and consistency. Nonetheless, the field had adapted to it in the weeks it took for the archetype to become a mainstay, and the increased density of Cavern of Souls even in three color decks was a clear sign of hositilty toward counterspells. Many players are advocating the addition of a third color, in order to diversify the threat selection and to shore up the deck's dependency on counterspells. Playing proper removal such as Pillar of Flame and Searing Spear, as well as some number of Thundermaw Hellkite might be the direction to follow for the next few tournament. Although the deck would feel less like a dedicated flash strategy and more like one of the midranges, the high degree of mobility and the ability to react on the fly would still be preserved within the common shell. I encourage you to test the deck's viability yourselves, since I strongly believe that as long as grindy Thragtusk decks still populate Standard, UWx will remain a viable choice to tackle the metagame.

With the end of the current season drawing near and with the winter vacation looming, this will be my last article published for Blackborder in 2012. I will take advantage of this occasion to wish you happy holidays and I hope to see you all back here next year for more content and discussions.

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